HSBC (merged threads)

Smasher

Yes you can reclaim all those charges. Send letter 1 now, stick to the timeline & send letter 2 after they ignore you or tell you that the charges are correct & you're not having them back. After that, you start the court claim

marsden_pete

would you also write a letter of complante?

chrissheff

Hi all,

I successfully reclaimed £316 of charges earlier this year, which was great.

Now I've found that HSBC have recently added some charges to my account, they are as follows :

09 NOV CHARGE £25.00
10 NOV NOTIFIED FEES/CHARGES £25.00
11 DEC NOTIFIED FEES/CHARGES £25.00

My account details also state that £68.00 is due to be taken from my account on the 10th January 2008, the description for this charge is "Arrangement Fees".

Can anyone tell me why they would call these charges by different names?

And has anyone got any advice as to what course of action i should take?

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any advice given.

Chris.

Smasher

chrissheff wrote: »

Hi all,

I successfully reclaimed £316 of charges earlier this year, which was great.

Now I've found that HSBC have recently added some charges to my account, they are as follows :

09 NOV CHARGE £25.00
10 NOV NOTIFIED FEES/CHARGES £25.00
11 DEC NOTIFIED FEES/CHARGES £25.00

My account details also state that £68.00 is due to be taken from my account on the 10th January 2008, the description for this charge is "Arrangement Fees".

Can anyone tell me why they would call these charges by different names?

It is because they have disguised them as "service fees" now to try to hoodwink the OFT.

chrissheff wrote: »

And has anyone got any advice as to what course of action i should take?

Reclaim! Exactly the same way you did last time.

lightisfading

Why are you still going overdrawn?!

chrissheff wrote: »

Hi all,

I successfully reclaimed £316 of charges earlier this year, which was great.

Now I've found that HSBC have recently added some charges to my account, they are as follows :

09 NOV CHARGE £25.00
10 NOV NOTIFIED FEES/CHARGES £25.00
11 DEC NOTIFIED FEES/CHARGES £25.00

My account details also state that £68.00 is due to be taken from my account on the 10th January 2008, the description for this charge is "Arrangement Fees".

Can anyone tell me why they would call these charges by different names?

And has anyone got any advice as to what course of action i should take?

Thanks for reading and thanks in advance for any advice given.

Chris.

chrissheff

I'm self employed, i work long hours and most of them away from home for weeks on end. Finding time to get to the bank and getting money in from jobs isn't as easy as it sounds.

Thanks for the advice Smasher.

BAILIFFCHASER

Similar thing is hapenning to me. Every 2 weeks charges arrive unannounced and are debited.

Weena_2

Hi all,

I need some advice. In Feb 07 I wrote to HSBC asking them to refund £360 in bank charges relating to an account I had closed a few years ago. After a few letters were sent back and forth they eventually agreed to settle in full and asked me to sign a form agreeing to this, which I did. Unfortunately, since I closed the account I have moved house twice and have got married so my name has changed. Despite the fact that I have pointed this out in all of my correspondence, HSBC have continued to write to me at my old address and using my old name. The new owner has been forwarding my mail but I was concerned that my cheque would be in the wrong name and so I again sent my new details to HSBC along with the form. After a long period they wrote to me and asked me to call in at a local branch with some ID, which I did - the branch retained this letter and copied my ID, all of which they faxed to the relevant dpartment. This was about 3 months ago and I have still not yet received my money. I called the number for HSBC on my letter but the girl I spoke to said she couldn't help me as I don't have an account. She gave me the number for customer services who have advised me to take my ID into the branch again as they will be able to tell me when to expect the money - but I suspect that I am being fobbed off - any suggestions?

RobbtheRott

Hi - I'm a fool - don't always check my statements and when my girlfriend suggested I did I was a little bit shocked...

HSBC have been charging me a £25 arrangement fee at least once a month... for at least the last nine months (current total over £800).

The annoying thing is that they've charged me £800 for only spending £325 (my girlfriend is a whizz), we agree that it's not fair that they should charge me so much, also that this is the principle of the unfair fees test case that is going through soon.


However, we can't agree whether I'll be able to claim these "arrangement fees" back as they fall 'outside the lines' of the test case? - Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I'd love it if I could claim back all that money...

I phoned the bank and that woman on the phone was very sympathetic. However the woman in the bank I asked was horrible (she even told me that they laugh at the claim letters that come in to the branch - I don't think she realises what a bank is and how much money they actually make)!
- But neither was very helpful.

Smasher

I wrote this somewhere else about HSBC's arrangement fees. You will need to try & get a copy of your pre-2007 T&Cs. If You can't I can send them to you. The good news is you can reclaim all "arrangement fees"..

Now this is what you do with these 2 terms & conditions..
Some time around the end of 2006 or the beginning of 2007, HSBC decided to copy Lloyds in disguising their penalty charges as "fees for a service". Every HSBC current account customer will have received a leaflet explaining about formal overdraft requests when you pre-arrange extra overdraft, and informal overdraft requests - where you exceed your agreed limit without first arranging it & HSBC "provide the service" of extending your OD limit to meet payments for which they now charge an "arrangement fee". This informal overdraft request is what they used to call a default.
This is now part of their standard terms & conditions (see page 24, section 7).
This "arrangement fee" is the new dressed up & disguised penalty charge for defaults. They used to say that this charge was to cover their costs when you default, now they say it is a fee for the service of allowing you to exceed your overdraft. This is how they are trying to circumvent the law.

Now look at their old terms & conditions from 2004 and see sections 6 & 7. Particularly section 7.13 on page 19. This explains how these charges, for exactly the same reasons as above, are to cover their management & arrangement costs when you exceed your agreed limit.

Print off these 2 terms & conditions to show the court how HSBC has deliberately altered their terms & conditions in direct response to the growing number of people reclaiming penalty charges, by simply describing them as a fee for a service.
The OFT report into "cloaking/disguising pealty charges" is in the court bundle in the Litigation Workshop forum. You need to refer to section 4.21 about "disguised penalties".
This will be enough to dismiss HSBC (and Lloyds) arguments that their charges are legitimate fees for a legitimate service.

Since all banks now disguise their penalty charges as service fees, you will need to argue that they are not genuine services and use the old T&Cs to show this. Send the first letter asap & get the ball rolling.

Good luck!